The meeting went on for another hour, the team brainstorming procedures by which to deploy over various distances and environments, or accept other teams deployed to them. A ton of data, a ton of vague but promising considerations. Xena took copious notes. She assigned committees. Mac took in none of it.

What was Ellen up to? She did not want to date him, she just didn't. Knife him, strangle him, draw-and-quarter him, sure, but she did not want to date him. Probably she wanted to torture him for his tongue-in-cheek invitation, teach him a lesson about speaking to his betters. Man, Mac hoped so.

Regardless of what he hoped, he knew he had to go up there after the meeting. She'd told him to, she expected him to, so he'd better comply or imagine his bloody, defiled, and...

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